I have the in-hull docking lights. They are only useful when approaching a dock at night once you get within 20-30'. Out on the lake I can't tell the difference with them on or off. I have better luck with a cig lighter handheld spotlight or high power rechargeable flashlight.

tower lights need to project otherwise they just light up the bow and windshield. gotta be done right.

This is the main reason I mounted mine in front of the windshield. My HID spot lights really light up the water well in front of the boat. I can see sticks, birds, etc. on the water in front of the boat. Bouys/channel markers, etc. also light up very well from my spots. The switch allows them to work like a handheld, only difference is they are fixed mounted instead of using a handheld.

My HID lights are converted halogen ( H23 bulbs) titan lights. Bought the bulb/ballast kits and installed myself with a few minor modifications. They work great like ^^^^^ mentioned. I live on the lake, and the lake patrol is off the water by 4-5 in the summer. My lights are invaluable to me. I even mounted a pair on my pontoon boat, lol.

I have the Innovative docking lights on my Sanger and beyond docking they pretty much just look cool. I don't think much of tower lights either but I'm not running HID's. I'm with Mikeski a legit spot light is the best thing when running at night. The most important thing to do at night is go slow.

In your second pic, it looks like the lights really light up the front cockpit. I found that tower lights give so much reflection up front off the vinyl, that you can't even see the lake. I think it would be very difficult to capture this in a picture, but you are telling me that you can see when traveling at night with your setup? The picture looks like the same problem I usually see with tower lights...but I would trust your experience more than the pic.

Yes, there is very little reflection to bother your eyes from the forward location. The lights are mounted in front of the driver and the windshield, so they are positioned similarly to a handheld. We could easily see the water and stuff on the water with the lights in these places. The main problem with forward facing lights on the rear tower is the lights light up the inside of the windshield and reflect backwards. Here, the spots are a very narrow beam so the light on the interior is no more than what a flashlight or handheld spot puts out. The picture was taken with an iphone, so the quality is not very good.